Abstract
The purpose of this chapter is to provide information on how William Glasser's quality school concepts can be integrated into online classrooms. The author provides a historical background for the development of Glasser Quality Schools, including the conditions for quality and the criteria for becoming a quality school. The author will provide suggestions for creating online relationships, explain the concept of boss versus lead management, and give examples of how lead management is utilized in a quality school. The importance of making learning useful and relevant will be linked to student motivation. The self-evaluation process of assessment will be discussed and how self-evaluation can be integrated with feedback for continued improvement of outcomes and quality. Finally, the author will provide a problem-solving format that can be used by faculty, administration, and students.
TopWilliam Glasser And The Quality School
William Glasser, M.D. is best known for developing reality therapy. This approach to counseling and psychotherapy is based on helping people accept personal responsibility for what they can control and make plans for changes they can make that will lead to happier, healthier lives. This includes changes that result in improved, successful, and meaningful relationships with the important people in their lives. Choice Theory (1998) provides the theoretical support for the efficacy of reality therapy. Together, the theory and therapy, when applied to school systems, provide the foundation for the quality school.
In his best-selling book Reality Therapy (1965), Glasser explained that human problems are based in inability to effectively satisfy basic needs, to accept the reality of life, and to take responsibility for what we can control. At the time that he was developing these ideas, Glasser was working with the Ventura School for Girls in southern California, where the principles of reality therapy were applied in custody, treatment, and school. The basis of the Ventura program was the belief that better results for the girls came in an environment that included warm relationships along with an expectation for increasing responsibilities.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Self-Evaluation: The process in which a person evaluates his or her work, based on a shared understanding of the expectations for quality.
Quality School: A school that is based on warm, caring relationships, focuses on the useful and relevant application of knowledge with a goal of competence, and uses a lead-management approach to promote self-evaluation and continual improvement.
Concurrent Evaluation: A process in which student and teacher meet to discuss the progress of a project, each sharing their perceptions of what is going well and what needs improvement, resulting in agreement about the status of quality for the assignment.
WDEP: An acronym based on Glasser’s reality therapy process that can adapted for use by lead managers in a quality school.
Lead-Management: A non-coercive method of working with people that is based on William Glasser, M.D.’s Choice Theory concepts and W. Edwards Deming’s principles of total quality management.
Choice Theory: A theory developed by William Glasser, M.D., which explains that human behavior and motivation is generated by genetically based instructions to satisfy basic needs of survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun.
Conditions for Quality: Three components necessary for the development of a quality school: a warm, caring environment, useful, and relevant learning, and the use of self-evaluation.
Reality Therapy: A process of therapy, developed by William Glasser, M.D., that focuses on encouraging individuals to take personal responsibility for making life changes that will lead to mental health and happiness, especially in relationship with others.